Studies on Indian copepods 5. On eleven new species of marine cyclopoid copepods from the south-east coast of India

Abstract

SEWELL (1949) has pointed out that our knowledge of the cyclopoid copepods of Indian waters, especially those inhabiting the littoral regions in association with invertebrates and sea weeds and in which the type of existence is usually referred to as ' semi-parasitic', is extremely scanty. The oldest account available on this little known crustacean group in our waters is that of Thompson & Scott (1903) who, in their supplementary reports of the faunistic survey of the Pearl Banks of Ceylon, gave brief description of the copepods they came across. The cyclopoid copepods they dealt with were mostly obtained by examination of washings from dredged materials such as ascidians, sponges, corals, pearl oysters etc. Although the exact depth at which they were caught is not given in specific instances it is presumably from sea bottoms, at least a few fathoms deep. ' This collection of copepods have proved to be exceedingly rich and varied, containing as it does, no less than 283 species, of which 76 are new to science while at least 10 new genera are required' (Thomp. & Scott, loc. cit.). Of these copepods, the ' semi-parasitic' cyclopoids were one of the richest groups; it was represented by 42 species of which 25 were new and no less than six new genera were required to accommodate eight of the new species. The only other exhaustive work on these tiny creatures in the Indian waters is that of Sewell (loc. cit.) who described the species obtained during the John Murray Expedition and also those he gathered during the long years of his valuable service in this country in the Marine Survey of India. He recorded 44 species belonging to this group, out of which 25 were new and 3 new genera and 2 sub-genera, had to be created to include some of the new species. Krishnaswamy (1954) recently reported three species from Madras coast; all the three are new to our waters and one of them is new to science. Attention may be drawn here to ihe 2 new genera of cyclopoid copepods that have recently been reported from this area (Ummerkutty, 1960a and 1960b).